User blog:LucidPigeons/The Top Fifteen Animated Fight Sequences
We all love a good fight, don't we? It's something that gets the blood boiling and raises the tension. The end result usually changes the course of the plot, and by hell they're usually pretty awesome. Today, I'll be counting down what I feel are the top fifteen greatest animated fight sequences. This includes animated movies and series; I won't include anime because there's way too many choices to pick from and my knowledge of it is fairly vague, so for now I'll stick with western cartoons. Keep in mind this is all my opinion. I haven't seen every cartoon in the world, so feel free to make suggestions. 15. Qilby vs. Yugo and the Eliatropes ' (''Wakfu): I have to give this one major credits almost solely on visual appeal. While there isn't actually much in the way of fighting, Wakfu is one of the most beautifully animated cartoons I have ever seen, and it is at its finest during the final battle with traitorous villain Qilby and King Yugo in the climax of Wakfu's second season. You also have to feel for a villain who'd likely otherwise be a Complete Monster; the final shot genuinely establishes some sympathy for a pure evil character. The fight is here. 14. '''Lil' Gideon '''vs. '''Dipper (Gravity Falls): This was some serious catharsis. To elaborate, false prodigy Lil' Gideon Gleeful has just discovered the presence of a third journal (or first, under the circumstances) that he believes Dipper has possession of. Dipper and Mabel, currently on a bus back to their own home due to Gideon's previous victory, are ambushed by Gideon in his gigantic mechanical construct of his own likeness, and proceeds to hassle Dipper for the journal. The fight's an intense capper for a season finale which had actually been pretty tense up to now and seeing Gideon getting punched and eventually arrested is seriously satisfying. Never is the bond between the two twins more apparent than here. I'm sure the inevitable final battle with Bill will top it, but for now, here the fight is. The fight is here. 13. Jenner '''vs. '''Justin (The Secret of NIMH): Don Bluth's finest film is capped off by a bloody duel between the scheming Jenner (or as I like to occasionally call, "Eyebrow-Rat") and his rival Justin, which sees Jenner lose all form of civility after his plans take a nosedive and devolve into feral barbarism where he attempts to kill everyone he sees. The otherwise-advanced rats of the rosebush, Justin primarily, go into a straight-up sword duel which ends with Jenner's henchrat finally snapping and hurling a dagger into Jenner's back. It's arguably the darkest part of the movie aside from the flashbacks to the experimentation, and it's a straight-up sword fight that really challenges the G rating the movie has. As I said, it's bloody, or as much as it can be given as it's a family-friendly (mostly) movie. It'd probably be higher if it didn't also serve as the moment where Jenner's character was completely ruined; all it takes is one complication to his plan and Jenner does a Scar and goes nuts, being ousted as Nicodemus' murderer in the process. Jenner's plan was doomed from the start, but he could have handled it with some dignity. The fight is here. 12. The Bear vs. Balto and Jenna '(''Balto): The first of two battles against a demonic bear is the one portrayed in Balto. Though the fight itself may hold little relevance to the plot, the bear is terrifying, more so than the one portrayed down below, and the score only serves to punctuate how much of a threat this thing is. It's pretty exciting seeing Balto go against the bear, and while the fight may end quickly (and anti-climactically) it's a good enough rush to make you feeling satisfied for the overall lack of a good fight between Steele and Balto. The fight is here. 11. '''Ronno '''vs '''Bambi (Bambi): This one's another fairly brief one, but you got to give it credit both for the time it was made and how much it expertly clashes with the movie's overall tone. Bambi and another deer named Ronno engage in a silent but harsh duel for the heart of the doe Faline. The lighting in this fight is excellent. The shadows are sharp, the light is harsh, the colors are hot and deadly, and the fight is briskly animated and suitably intense. It captures the untamed violence of nature and, once more, has a great score over it. The fight is here. 10. Jasper 'vs. '''Garnet '(Steven Universe): The final fight capping off the first season of Steven Universe (if you don't include Malachite, and that wasn't really a fight) is probably the best fight in the show thus far because it's showcased something that rarely happens; a Gem vs another Gem (not a corrupted Gem, in this case). Peridot's too geeky to really take seriously in a fight and while the fight against Lapis was good, it was before the Homeworld threat had been put into center focus and you didn't really want it to happen, considering how sympathetic Lapis was. Jasper, on the other hand, illustrates just how severe the Homeworld threat is becoming and after Garnet refuses, we climax with an epic fight topped by arguably the most recognized song in the series, "Stronger than You." The fight is here. 9. '''Owlman '''vs. '''Batman (Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths): There are a lot of fights in the DCAU as well as the many DC animated original movies (they are superheroes and supervillains, after all), and while I haven't seen them all, I have to hand the best one to the ones I have seen to the final confrontation of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, between Batman and the nihilistic Owlman who, after learning of the existence of the multiverse, has gone renegade from the Crime Syndicate and decided to destroy all reality. Owlman is the best foil to Batman in my opinion, more so than the Joker (for as much as I love him). Both Batman and Owlman are stoic, caped men with similar philosophies and personalities, but the difference is how they turned out; Batman resolved, after a terrible tragedy, to fight against crime and prevent the misery that had shaped him, while Owlman was driven mad by it. This is reflected in Batman's kick-ass one-liner that finishes the fight ("We both looked into the abyss. But when it looked back at us... you blinked.") and while the fight's not necessarily the flashiest or the most hectic (the place in which they fight in is the bare Earth Prime) it certainly has the greatest stakes, and it's great seeing the two foils fight against each other. The fight is here. 8. Grievous '''vs. Ki-Adi Mundi and accompanying Jedi'/'Emperor Palpatine vs. 'Savage Opress and Darth Maul '(Star Wars: Clone Wars/''Star Wars: The Clone Wars''): A two-fer, both from Star Wars. I was initially hesitant on including the former because it's less a fight and more Grievous trouncing the Jedi, but I felt the need to include it because damn ''Grievous is awesome, and nowhere is that more finely showcased here. With only two of his four arms, Grievous kicks the ass the several Jedi taking him at once, including notables Shaak Ti and Ki-Adi Mundi. He doesn't take so much as a single hit in return and manages to strike down every Jedi he locks onto, all compounded by slick, swift animation and tense music. The latter is one of the best examples of Palpatine fighting in the series, against his former apprentice and his brother. Despite the fact that Darth Maul is responsible for horrible atrocities, Palpatine is at his cruelest here as he strikes down Savage in front of Maul and has the audacity to torture him afterwards. It's a sympathetic moment for an evil villain, and it's one of Palpatine's finest moments. 7. 'Fire Lord Ozai '''vs. '''Avatar Aang (Avatar: The Last Airbender): I'll confess; I've never watched this series, nor have I seen its sequel series The Legend of Korra, so I can't say much ''here. However, I can say I have seen several of the fights in this series, and none are on the scale or intensity of this near-DBZ level fight. The series' beautiful and creative animation is full-front and centre here, and Ozai definitely having a hell of a time chewing up the scenery as the deliciously hammy Fire Lord Ozai. The fight is here. 6. '''The Final Battle of Marshank '(Martin the Warrior/Redwall Season 3): It's been a good long while since I've seen this series, but I loved both the book series and it, helped by the fact the series follows the series quite faithfully. I can say that the entire final battle of enemy slave fortress Marshank, headed by the evil stoat Badrang the Tyrant, is the best fight in the series both in terms of scale, intensity, and sheer power. The final battle in the first season was decent, but Cluny went out anti-climactically and it was never explained how the Abbot actually dies (in contrast to the books, where Cluny very explicitly lashes the Abbot with his poison-barb tail) and the sole lack of a fight in the second season between main villain Slagar. This, however, racks on the intensity with characters both major and minor fighting to the death, the death of a major character, and of course, an epic final battle between Martin and Badrang himself to cap it all off, with a new song especially for that specific confrontation (especially seeing as this series is very fond of re-using songs). It's unusually violent for an animated series, but that can't be helped seeing as the original books were extremely violent too, and it's an excellent capper for a great animated series. I can't link any videos due to potenetial copyright violation, but the primary "final" battle takes place primarily during episodes 12 and 13. 5. Claudandus/Pascal 'vs. '''Francis '(Felidae): Wondering why I didn't include Scar vs. Simba on here? While these two fights are very, very similar (ironically, both films were released in 1994) but I feel that ultimately, the fight between serial killer Claudandus and Francis from the German film noir Felidae ultimately tops Scar vs. Simba. Why? It's longer, more intense, a lot more daring ''(this isn't a film for kids, and for that reason it ultimately ends up with Claudandus disembowled; not as memorable as Scar getting eaten by hyenas but a hell of a lot more gruesome because all of it is onscreen) and frankly has better dialogue. The dub of ''Felidae, I won't lie, is a great one, and the characters have the same slick and powerful dialogue I've come to expect from pretty much any film noir. Scar vs. Simba, while still a great fight, is underwhelmingly short and the dialogue is... ultimately just alright. The Lion King ''may be more well-known, but I love this fight a lot more. The fight is here. 4. 'Sharptooth '''vs. '''Mama Longneck (The Land Before Time): I'm a massive fan of animation, as this list may show, and one of the reigning kings of animation in general is Don Bluth. The man's absolutely great and I'm incredibly excited that he's coming back into business with Dragon's Lair: The Movie. With that in mind, probably one of my most nostalgic movies is his 1988 feature The Land Before Time, and it's that movie in all places that features one of the most terrifying antagonists ever; Sharptooth. The thing's an unstoppable, near-invincible force of nothing less than pure berserk rage. So, what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, in this case, a mother willing to sacrifice her life to protect her children? You get Sharptooth vs. Mama Longneck. Many people find the death of Littlefoot's mother to be one of the saddest moments in film, but many forget how ''she went out. The fight is probably the most intense moments in the already-terrifying film; the colors are some of the harshest and most foreboding in animation, Sharptooth is nothing less than terrifying (and stupidly durable) and the last half of the fight takes place during a goddamn earthquake. This is also the best characterization we receive for Littlefoot's mother; she's kind, and gentle, but if you threaten her kids she'll stare and fight off death to protect them. Ultimately, this is one of the most brutal and horrifying moments in animation history, in my opinion, but it's incredibly memorable and it codifies Sharptooth as one of the most scary, and yet awesome villains to ever grace film. The fight is here. 3. 'Tai Lung vs. '''Shifu (Kung Fu Panda): Of course I have to include a fight from an action-oriented franchise. There were a few runners-up, but ultimately I went with this one because, on top of the already fast-paced action coreography, it's the most emotionally powerful fight in the franchise (sans maybe Po vs Shen, and the actual confrontation between them went by way too fast to be included on this list). Tai Lung is a really good villain; maybe not so much tragic anymore by the time the fight ends, but clearly conflicted. Watching Shifu fight the one he raised is painful, and it almost is from Tai Lung's end too ("All I ever did, I did, to make you proud!"). It's got the same impeccably sharp animation that fuels the rest of the fights in the series, but the emotional turmoil, the excellent dialogue, and the pain of seeing Tai Lung finally reject potential redemption for good makes this the best fight in a series filled with awesome fights. The fight is here. 2. 'The Bear '''vs. '''Todd, Copper, and Amos Slade '(The Fox and the Hound): Now here, in my opinion, is the crowning fight from a Disney film. This is made even more notable considering the film it's from; this scene aside, The Fox and the Hound ''is one of the fluffiest Disney movies ever made. For context, after the separation of Todd and Copper by natural circumstances and the distance furthered after Todd indirectly leads Todd's fellow hunting dog Chief into a brutal accident, Todd and Copper have become fierce enemies. As Amos Slade breaches into a protected reserve to hunt Todd and his vixen out revenge, he accidentally awakens a hulking bear, and spurs it into uncontrollable wrath upon shooting it. The bear here is, like the one from ''Balto, terrifying. The one from Balto ''has a scarier design, but the slobbering, red-eyed growling menace portrayed here makes it less a bear and more a snarling demon. The fight's long and unusually brutal for a film this soft; the music's intense, the animation's brilliant, and it's here we finally see the relationship between Todd and Copper finally mended in a high-stakes climax very atypical of something of this genre. The fight is here. 1. 'Bryagh 'vs '''Sir Orrin, Giles, Danielle, and Aragh '(The Flight of Dragons): Here comes my favorite villain (or one of two; Palpatine's also making excellent rounds). The final confrontation between the supporting heroes and Ommadon's bloodthirsty dragon is bar none of the of most epic moments in animation I've ever seen. Maybe the animation's a little sloppy, maybe the action isn't that ''prevelant, but it's here where Bryagh firmly, ''firmly ''establishes himself as a nigh-invincible, dreaded machine of pure carnage. The heroes trade blow after blow with Bryagh, while the dragon effortlessly kills them one after another, Giles simply by kicking him aside. After Bryagh murders Sir Orrin's darling, Danielle - and unleashes a despicable, snorting laugh in his face about it - Orrin draws his sword and gives a poetic speech that, once more, serves as probably one of the most awesome quotes in ''general I've ever heard. Bryagh finally unleashes a spray of fire onto Orrin, and Orrin retaliates by tossing his now flaming sword into Bryagh's gut, lighting him aflame and killing him. Orrin's last moments are tearjerking, and frankly, this is a better climax than the climax itself (Peter just talks Ommadon to death; while it's an awesome moment for the otherwise normal human scientist, it's a rather pathetic moment for Ommadon). It sees the rivalry between Bryagh and Orrin finally settled, is emotionally powerful if you're invested enough, and simply stands as an epic stand-off and one of the best moments in film I've seen period. The fight is here. Category:Blog posts